This may be a dumb question, but I am at wits end with this. I am trying to tie crease flies, but I can't seem to avoid getting my fingers glued together. Any help would be appreciated

Ray

04-04-2008, 09:57 AM

I assume you're using super glue (CA) to bond the foam to the shank of the hook.

Are you covering the shank with thread?
Are you using gel-type CA?

Giving the CA a chance to air dry helps a lot.

Smcdermott

04-04-2008, 10:05 AM

Here's what I do....

Cut up a few small piecese of wax paper. Place the paper between your fingers when pressing the foam together with CA so that any glue that pushes out sticks to the paper and not your fingers. The wax film will prevent it from it sticking to the fly. Once you do this a few times you will get a good feel for "less is more" with the CA and you probably won't need to keep using the wax paper.

Sean

jmccall

04-04-2008, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the tips

Ray
I am covering the hook with thread and using pink zap-a-gap

pschwart00

04-04-2008, 10:22 AM

I've been there. Let me just that using CA glue is important...BUT using the CA Gel glue from Balsa USA makes all the difference in the world! It sets up faster than Zap's CA Gel and is thicker so it helps prevent runs. I highly recommend ordering a tube (google it).

Now to the how to keep your fingers from sticking...
I squeze out some glue onto tin foil. I then dip a toothpick in the glue & use that is my applicator. The trick (or at least for me) is to only glue a teeny lenght first. Once you've flues a spot together you can then work your way to the rest of the foam. I start near the eye of the hook & work backwards.

I then finish with 2 coats of Loon Hard Head in clear.

Ray

04-04-2008, 10:25 AM

Try some regular old superglue. Zap-a-gap has slightly longer curing time. The gel CA give you a little more control too.

catspaw

04-04-2008, 11:49 AM

You can get a good CA gel type glue from Loc-Tite, most hardware stores have it as does Wal-Mart, it's in a little purple plastic squeeze bottle.

Henry

04-04-2008, 12:31 PM

Applying the glue to the thread wraps on the hook shank is correct. I suspect that you're using too much glue though (too much glue takes longer to set-up and bond anyways). I also wonder if you use a brush-on applicator or some other method to apply the glue? I personally use just plain old Crazy Glue in the stand-up brush on aplicator bottle...works great for me.

Try using less glue and "Huff" a few times (re: blow hot/moist breath on the inner bonding surface of your foam bodies). CA glues are activated by moisture (just not too much).